Alison Campbell • Feb 28, 2019 •
The news that school students from across New Zealand are organising the School Strike for Climate on March 15 has been all over the media lately. See this story, for example, which includes the comment that: Globally, their message is clear. They are sick of waiting for adults to save their world so they are going to do … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 18, 2019 •
Noam Obermeister, University of Cambridge and Elliot Honeybun-Arnolda, University of East Anglia A new expansion has added environmental challenges to Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, the latest in a popular series of strategy video games that has been running since the 1990s. The expansion – called Gathering Storm – adds new features to the game, most … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 07, 2019 •
Nick Golledge, Victoria University of Wellington Last week, rivers froze over in Chicago when it got colder than at the North Pole. At the same time, temperatures hit 47℃ in Adelaide during the peak of a heatwave. Such extreme and unpredictable weather is likely to get worse as ice sheets at both poles continue to melt. Our … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 30, 2019 •
Jim Salinger, University of Tasmania and James Renwick, Victoria University of Wellington As the Australian heatwave is spilling across the Tasman and pushing up temperatures in New Zealand, we take a look at the conditions that caused a similar event last year and the impacts it had. Last summer’s heatwave gave New Zealand its warmest … Read More
Alison Campbell • Jan 20, 2019 •
A substantial proportion of the CO2 we release into the atmosphere, via burning fossil fuels, ends up dissolved in the ocean. The impact of this is a change in the ocean’s acidity: the pH drops. According to the Smithsonian, oceans have become substantially more acidic over the last 200 years (the period of the Industrial Revolution) – waaaay … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Jan 11, 2019 •
“Don’t eat beef.” Such a statement does not go down well in New Zealand, especially in Waikato, where the cow reigns supreme. I don’t say it as someone who wants to peddle a “Meat is Murder” message. I don’t believe that at all. I say it as someone who wants New Zealand to take Climate Change seriously. Quite simply, producing … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 18, 2018 •
Adrian R. Camilleri, University of Technology Sydney; Dalia Patino-Echeverri, Duke University, and Rick Larrick, Duke University What did you have for dinner last night? Might you have made a different choice if you had a simple way to compare the environmental impacts of different foods? Most people do not recognise the environmental impact of … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 17, 2018 •
Bronwyn Hayward The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change deliberately left making decisions about what to do to achieve change up to governments and relies on citizens to press their governments to do more. This was a deliberate decision so that diverse governments could at least agree climate change was a problem (a first vital step in international change), but … Read More
Nic Rawlence • Nov 27, 2018 •
Fossil hunting along the rugged and beautiful Wairarapa coastline is a dangerous exercise. Prevail against the harsh winds that blow you off your feet and fossil penguins will be your reward – prehistoric nuggets of gold from a lost world that is only now yielding its secrets. Risking life and limb: At the rugged Te Kaukau Point, bones of … Read More
Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Nov 01, 2018 •
Phew, it’s been a busy month in the news agenda: from the IPCC’s 1.5C report to turmoil in the National party and tragedy in Wanaka and Mt Cook. Through all of that, you’d be forgiven for missing some of the excellent science-related stories that have been published over the past month. But never fear, we’ve collated some of our favourites … Read More